CBR15Passport (other country English princess/Canadian author),
Awhile back I contacted the company Street Noise for a few reader copies and put myself on their radar so I could receive emails from Liz like she sent the other day. This email was promoting a mid-June 2023 graphic novel release called Diana: My Graphic Obsession by Sivan Piatigorsky-Roth. Attached was an online reader link and boy did I want to read it. But I was at work and must wait. When I finally etched out reading time, I came away with a few thoughts.
At first, I was not sure I liked it. But once it settled and I was able to digest it, I realized that I did like it. However, I am still not sure if I love it, which makes me love it. I know that sounds odd, but I know that contradiction means it is a thinking book; and thinking books, even if they are not my favorite, have a special place in my reading memories.
I grew up knowing a little about the English royal family and I knew that there was this big deal on tv that had this ridiculously, large, white dress being talked about. All I remember is I say this event, but probably went about playing normally. I would watch white-dressed-woman as her children were born and grew up. I looked at the tabloid covers covering her latest outfit, hugging a sick looking person, and children occasionally around her, and something about land mines. I remember a little about her death, but it was not until I was an adult-adult that I understood a little more of the big picture. And it was not until Piatigorsky-Roth’s book did I get an even bigger picture.
This is an interesting love letter to The World Princess, and even to the author themselves. It is a look at another side of the royal puzzle from a person/author who only knows the royal family from the media, and then only really from Prince William and Princess Kate marriage (funny how the royal family and weddings are strong memories for us). They know the “Cult of Diana” (which depending on who you ask was a good or bad thing) from what they can locate via online, and talking to their mother, and having grown up in Canada. The way Sivan presents everything is in a simple discussion format. They cover much about the media, about the role of gender, about how she was an icon for not only the gay/AIDS community, but for really all people, and how publicity hurts as much as it helps simultaneous. And at the idea of “whatever love means” comes into play.
You might not be an autistic, transmasculine, Jewish author who has an interested in a royal celebrity, but I feel that you could find something to relate too, or just enjoy a clever story.
